dossier FILES: making contact: Belle Knox ~PornStar “Feminism is not a gulag…”

“Feminism is not a gulag…”

TIME Defends ‘Feminist’ Duke Porn Star……

Bellee Knox, the infamous Duke University student acting in porn to pay for tuition, has garnered a few fans in the feminist community, particularly, Charlotte Alter of Timewho valiantly came to Knox’s defense, calling her “kinky” lifestyle as feminist as Betty Friedan.

Alter’s article comes in response to a manifesto Knox put out on XOJane where she attempted to dispel some of the myths about her choice to act in porn, saying her decision to act on a rough porn website and her unyielding love affair with masochistic sex as something entirely feminist because she chooses to do it willingly, and as long as she “chooses” porn, she should be empowered, and to “shame” her would be anti-feminist Knox believes; Charlotte Alter agrees. Alter states:

She’s ultimately right that empowered women can also enjoy kink. Feminism is not a gulag– it’s not like there are guards that will shoot you if you try to escape for the night. Let’s get rid of this idea that feminism is an all-or-nothing pursuit that has to be 100% consistent because, as early feminist Margaret Fuller’s BFF Ralph Waldo Emerson put it, “consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”

Besides, isn’t the whole point of a fantasy to be an escape from what other people think is appropriate? If what you’re doing is “appropriate,” it’s probably not hot. I don’t even want to know what a politically correct sex life would look like, but it sounds boring.

Alter’s only reservations for Knox’s manifesto are that she’s still a teenager, admits to have suffered from depression, and that porn can sometimes be too “dude-centric.” Alter recommends Knox get involved in the hot new market of “feminist porn” instead, or perhaps turning her whole porn career into “some kind of long research experiment for a Women & Gender Studies paper.”

In the end, Alter feels feminists should cheer Knox’s decision to trade sex for cash while complete strangers watch, because, as she puts it, “We believe sexual assault survivors when they say the sex wasn’t consensual. We should also believe Belle Knox when she says it was.”

IN DEFENSE OF KINK: MY FIRST ROLE AS THE DUKE PORN STAR WAS ON A ROUGH SEX WEBSITE, AND NO, THAT DOESN’T MAKE ME A BAD FEMINIST

Kink does not disqualify me as a feminist. No matter how many concern trolling essays are written.

When I agreed to film that rough sex scene, I knew what was in store for me. I knew that it was a game of psychological degradation as much as physical. I knew as it was unfolding and I saw exactly how they were trying to “break me.” I realize that the visual of me with a facial at the end was nothing compared to the close-ups the site provided of my skin revealing scars from my most vulnerable past when I was a cutter. This is a fact that my haters have taunted me for, their words dripping in condescension and insensitivity.

MORE: I am not going to apologize for getting turned on by embracing an archetypal submissive role during sex. The same way that a powerful CEO businessman likes to visit a dominatrix in his off hours, I am not ashamed to admit that I enjoy the pleasure derived from these rough scenes. It provides a cavewoman-like epiphany that no intro to feminist studies ever will. It is raw and exhilarating. But that’s my choice — which is what matters here. I know it is not for every woman.

As a strong, assertive young woman, sometimes it’s fun to reverse roles and play around with my personality. I can be psychoanalyzed in a million different ways, but sometimes there’s just no rhyme or reason: I like what I like, and I won’t live in shame because of it.

Do I regret shooting a scene with this website? Yes. Do I think I deserve to be demonized for it? Absolutely not.

As I have learned more about the BDSM community, I have let myself become educated about safe, sane and consensual BDSM — which exists as a polar opposite of a reality in which women constantly face the threat of sexual violence.

Ever since I was a child, I’ve had some masochistic tendencies. When I was a young girl and my friend and I would play house, I would ask her to lock me in her dog cage. I was not fully aware of it, but it physically and mentally aroused me. I didn’t know why, but I liked it. Suddenly, I found myself in an entirely different role. I felt for the first time what it was like to be helpless and trapped. It was exciting. It was different.

Of course, she says, that hasn’t set well with feminists who confuse bedroom fantasies with real life submission. And as if to prove it, she’s defying their authority to speak up for submissives.

Over the years, the BDSM community has been marginalized from the mainstream. We are called freaks. Submissives are labeled as victims of abuse; they must be emotionally disturbed to enjoy being tied up and choked, we rationalize. Submissive feminists have it even worse. The community that we identify with dismisses our desires or pegs us as unwitting victims. We are told that we are part of a social dynamic that seeks to violate all women…

But I would not — and I will never — take back my love of kink.

Could we love her want to smack her and call her a whore any more than we already do? Yes. (With her consent, of course.)

XOJane doesn’t just dole out advice in a classic Ask Angela style. They’ve created a series called “You Are the Advice Columnist” where readers can submit their own questions and advice about certain topics.

Recently a woman submitted a question that centered around her concern that her BDSM lifestyle might not be compatible with her feminism – and it isn’t just her beliefs that may contradict her feminism; other feminists are not all too friendly about her attempting to straddle the line:

“XOJane, I’ve found myself struggling for the last year with personal, but conflicting interests. I strongly consider myself a feminist, yes I could be more well read in the history, and politics, but that’s pretty much where my allegiances are. My feminism isn’t the root of the issue, it’s my realization and passion being kinky!”

“[…]I feel like I’m betraying my feminist beliefs by enjoying something that from the outside seems very misogynistic. I’m feeling guilty, and confused about the whole matter. I can’t stop being ether. I’ve gotten poor reactions when my interest in BDSM has come up around other feminists.”

It’s a topic that many feminists discuss heatedly. Join the discussion, and read the rest of her question onXOJane or start a conversation in our comments section.